Aljazeera's English-language website posted a news article dated June 21, 2011, entitled, "Ocean life 'facing mass extinction,'" which makes exactly that point, namely, "Pollution, global warming and other man-made problems are pushing the world's oceans to the brink of a mass extinction of marine life unprecedented in tens of millions of years..." This, according to a study entitled, "International Earth system expert workshop on ocean stresses and impacts," sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean. According to the article, the destruction of the oceans is accelerating at a pace faster than even the worst case scenarios predicted. Global warming plus massive pollution are threatening a die-back of marine life of epic proportions, a die-back that will affect all of life on earth.Yet, as momentous as this news is, it is literally drowned out by the media's fixation with such things as former Rep. Anthony Weiner's sexting habit or former Gov. Sarah Pallin's latest escapade. CNN, for example, posted its story, "Marine life facing mass extinction, report says," on June 21st. Just 24 hours later, on the 22nd, CNN had archived the story. It never was a feature item, even in its brief moment on page one.
Somehow, the fact that we're killing the oceans big time deserves more attention than this. Those who bewail the future we're handing "our children" because of the national debt are oblivious to the actual dirty, barren, sterile world, we're handing our kids through the way we abuse the planet. Truth is, of course, that this isn't so much about the media as it is about what kind of news catches the public eye. The media has a keen sense of what news sells, and Anthony, Sarah, & Friends is what sells. The oceans dying doesn't.
